South Korea sends a plane to restore the workers detained in the American Immigration raid

A rented plane from South Korea to the United States left on Wednesday to return the Korean workers detained in a migration raid in Georgia last week, although the return of the plane with the workers on the plane will not happen at the speed they were hoping.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 South Koreans, were rounded in the September 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at the sprawling Hyundai factory. The American authorities released a video showing that some of them are classified with chains around their hands, ankles and waist, causing shock and a feeling of treason between many in South Korea, a major American ally.

The South Korean government later said it had reached an agreement with the United States to release workers.

South Korean TV shots showed the Charter Plane, Boeing 747-8i from the Korean air, taking off at Inchon International Airport, west of Seoul. South Korea Foreign Ministry said it was talking to US officials to allow the plane to return home with the workers who were released as soon as possible.

But she said that the plane could not leave from the United States on Wednesday, as South Korea was wished earlier, because of an unlimited reason related to the American side.

Korean workers are currently being held at the Migration Center in Volkson, southeast Georgia. The South Korean media reported that it will be released and expelled 285 miles (460 km) by bus to Atlanta to take the rented plane.

South Korea officials said they are negotiating with the United States to win “voluntary” workers’ departures, rather than deportation, which may lead them to not qualify to return to the United States for up to 10 years.

The workplace raid was by the largest US Internal Security Agency to date as it follows the public deportation agenda. Georgia Battery Plant, a joint venture between the Solution Hyundai and LG Energy Solction, is one of the more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are currently carrying out in the United States.

Many South Koreans look at the Georgia raid as a source of national shame and remain surprised. Just 10 days ago, South Korean President Lee Jay Meong and US President Donald Trump held the top of the first summit in Washington on August 25. In late July, South Korea also promised hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States to reach a tariff deal.

Experts say South Korea will most likely take any major retaliatory steps against the United States, but the Georgia raid can become a source of tensions between the allies as the Trump administration intensifies immigration raids.

South Korea closes the US visa delays

The American authorities have claimed that some of the detained workers had crossed the American border illegally, while others entered the country legally, but they have finished visas or entered a visa that prevented them from working.

But a lawyer for some of the detainees stated that his clients were on a visa, allowing them to travel for up to 90 days, which is the time frame that the lawyer said they are still inside.

Meanwhile, South Korea experts and officials said that Washington has not yet behaved at the request of Seoul over years to ensure a comprehensive visa system to accommodate the skilled Korean workers needed to build facilities, even with pressure on the White House to expand industrial investments in the United States

South Korea companies are based on short -term visitor visas or an electronic travel license to send skilled workers needed to launch manufacturing sites and deal with other preparation tasks in which local workers are not training, a practice that has been largely tolerated for years.

LG Energy Solution, which used most of the detained workers, has instructed its employees in South Korea in the United States to visit B-1 or B-2 visas in the short term for not reporting until further notice, and they were told to return to the homeland immediately.

During his visit to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Chu Hyun met with representatives of the major Korean companies operating in the United States including Hyundai, LG and Samsung on Tuesday. Zhou told them that South Korea officials are in active discussions with American and legislative officials on possible legislation to create a separate visa share for South Korean professionals working in the United States, according to the Ministry of Chu.

Trump said this week that the workers were “illegally here”, and that the United States needed to work with other countries to train their experts on American citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computers.

But there is no company in the United States that makes the machines used in the Georgia batteries factory, according to the Immigration Attorney at Atlanta Charles Cook, which represents many citizens of South Korea detained. Cook told the Associated Press on Monday means that the workers had to come from abroad to install or repair equipment on the site because it would take about three to five years to train someone in the United States to do so.

During a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, he told me that he felt a “great responsibility” because of the raid and expressed its hopes that the operations of the South Korean companies will not violate unfairly again. He said that his government would push for improving systems to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.